He said that Minneapolis Fed president Narayana Kocherlakota and Bill Clinton’s claim that “people don’t have the job skills for the jobs that are open” is simply not true and not supported by employment data in the nation.

He argued that the problem is not structural and the real reason is

Well, there you go again, Krugman.

You are right that the structural problem is not the reason for the high unemployment rate. I give you credit for that because I agree with you on this point.

You are wrong to claim that the real problem is a “lack of policy resolve” from the US government. You said that because you are preaching the government solution again to solve the problem as a faithful liberal would do.

Well, what is so shocking to me from reading Krugman’s piece is this:

How come a Noble prize winner on economics doesn’t have any common sense?

The real reason for the high unemployment rate in the US is people are simply running out of money to spend in the first place. It actually happened in the Fall of 2005 when the housing bubble started to burst.

The academia called this “deleveraging.” It was a fancy word to say that Americans are having a debt up to their eyebrows. They didn’t have money in their savings account. They barely have enough to pay the bills on any giving month. They didn’t have any money to speak off in their 401(k) and, worse off, they may even have a loan on their accounts. They did save any money for their retirement. And they didn’t have money saved for their children’s education. What they do have are boats on the drive way. Huge flat panel TV in their living room. Fancy kitchen upgrades and a home theater in the basement or near the den. Plus a huge house that’s under water for the past three or four years.

Adding more salt to the the wound, the Three Stooges of the 21 century: Obama, Pelosi and Reid ran the federal government to the ground with lies and deceits and passed policies against people’s will with more government spending, unfunded liabilities, record-breaking deficits and extremely high national debt.

Of course, massive direct foreign investments to China and other markets in Asia and South America from US so many companies since 1993 have resulted in wholesale export of manufacturing jobs to these countries. And this was the root cause for the “structural” change of the industry and the labor market in the United States.Well, the United States has no other to blame but themselves and the capitalism because money flows to where it is treated the best.

American people who still have a job will save more at the expense of a crawling economy and a stubbornly high unemployment rate for at least two more years.

Now that the US government, like many Americans, is broke, the massive spending has to stop which American people are concisely doing right now. Let the market takes care of itself. Once people saved enough money and feel secure with their future, they will spend again and the unemployment rate will come down structural or not.

Wake up, Krugman. Forget about arguing with other academia and the likes of Bill Clinton. You need to get out of your office and talk to people on the main street from time to time. It is no more complicated than this.

A simple headline on New York Times on 9-24-2010 didn’t say much about the now famous Diaoyudao incident 钓鱼岛事件 “diao4 yu2 dao3 shi4 jian4” between China and Japan which started 17 days ago on 9-7-2010:

Japan Retreats With Release of Chinese Boat Captain

You have dig it a little deeper to find the details which appears in the first paragraph. It reads:

“A diplomatic showdown between Japan and China that began two weeks ago with the arrest of the captain of a Chinese trawler near disputed islands ended Friday when Tokyo accepted Beijing’s demands for his immediate release, a concession that appeared to mark a humiliating retreat in a Pacific test of wills.”

Every Chinese in the world should be proud of this moment because 79 years almost to this date another headline appeared on many Chinese newspapers:

九一八事变

“jiu3 yi1 ba1 shi4 bian4”

The Incident of September 18

On September 18, 1931, a Japanese army first lieutenant by the name of Suemori Komoto placed some explosives about 6′ from a section of the railway tracks of South Manchuria Railway (owned by a Japanese company) near the city of Shenyang and detonated it at 10:20 PM on that evening.

The detonation did no damage to the tracks except a small hole on the side of a track. But the Japanese Army accused China of instigated the incident and gave Japanese an excuse to attack the city of Shenyang the next day. By the end of 9-19-1931, Japanese army had occupied the city of Shenyang and killed 500 Chinese soldiers. During the fighting over the next five months, Japan occupied Northern China and established a puppet government.

In the following 6 years, Japan invaded China in multiple occasions:

一二八事变 in 1932 resulting in forbidding China deploy its own troops in the city of Shanghai.

“yi1 er1 ba1 shi4 bian4” “The January 28 Incident”

長城抗戰 “zhanf2 cheng2 kang4 zhan4” “The Great Wall War” in 1933 which resulted in the occupation of the province of 熱河 “Rehe” by Japan.

“zhang2 cheng2 kang4 zhang4” or defense of the Great Wall

華北特殊化 “hua2 bei3 te4 shu1 hua4” or Specialization of Northern China which established several tribal governments in northern China friendly to the Japanese government.

“hua2 bei3 te4 shu1 hua4”

The signing of The He-Umezu Agreement in 1935 demanding Kuomintang ceasing all political activities in and withdrawing all military forces from the province of Hebei 河北.

梅津・何応欽協定 “mei2 jing1 ・he2 ying4 qin1 xie2 ding4”

The establishment of 蒙古軍政府 “meng2 gu3 jun1 zheng4 fu3” or The Mongol Military Government by the Japanese government in the province of 察哈尔 “Cha1 ha1 er3” in northern China on May 12, 1936,

All these humiliating incidents culminated into the invasion of China and the eight year war between China and Japan, the so-called

“八年抗戰.” “ba1 nian1 kang4 zhang4.”

Although the war ended in the total surrender of Japan to the Allied Forces, the preceding humiliating events left a bitter taste in my mouth as I learned recent histories of China when I was a small boy in the elementary school.

You see, China was often called a 纸老虎 “zhi3 lao3 hu3,” or Paper Tiger, by foreign countries and Chinese people are described as “东亚病夫 dong1 ya3 bing4 fu1″ or The sick men of Eastern Asia by foreign newspapers.

I knew from early on that China, our country, has to be strong militarily to fend off foreign invasions. Without a strong arm force, China was like a piece of meat on a chopping block. Any country with a strong navy could come and take a piece of China.

The recent leaders of China are no doubt good students of Chinese history since 战争鸦片 “ya1 pian4 zhan4 zheng1,” or The Opium War, and multiple conflicts between China and Japan.

I have no doubt that they also know that a strong China is essential to rid off once and for all the humiliating images of China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

I am proud of What China can do now against the unreasonable action of the Japanese government on Diaoyu Island. I also want to tell the Japanese government that you shouldn’t act as a puppy of the United States. The United States uses Japan as a small and insignificant pawn, the so-called 马前卒 “ma3 qian1 zu2,’ or the pawn in front of the Knight, in its futile effort to block the now much stronger and powerful China.

Well, with five thousand years of history behind us, Chinese also has a saying to describe this:

China should continue buying Japanese treasuries in order
to push up Japanes Yen on the currency market if Japan doesn’t give in on Diaoyutai Island. Diaoyutai Island belongs to China.

China should agressively purchase Japanese Bonds and force Japanese government to defend the yen from making new highs against American dollar.

It allows Chinese government to diversy its foreign currency reserves and make Japanese products less competitive on the world market. Once Japanese government is forced to defend it’s currency, it gives Chinese government a perfect reason to defend it’s currency: Renminbi.

Taiwan is a second class “nation” on the world stage due to political pressure from China. According to a recent poll, slightly more than half of the Taiwanese people are willing to maintain the status quote indefinitely instead of unifying with China or declaring independence.

I have to admit that I fail to see the rationale behind this mindset.

Why the status quote?

Is it because that your pockets are filled with money from all that exports to China that you don’t care about your status on the world stage? According to the latest data, China accounts for 40% of Taiwan’s export market.

Is it because that this quasi mother-child relation on economics is enough to keep the unemployment rate low enough that most of you do not feel the pain?

Is it because that diplomatic advancement is simply a pipe dream given the strength of China in recent years? Didn’t President Ma said that Taiwan can “handle” diplomatic isolation as long as Taiwanese have jobs to go to and money to spend once economic isolation is removed.”

Is it because that declaring independence is a non-issue now because ECFA has taken effect as of 9-12-2010? Don’t you know that, with a closer tie on economy and other areas of your daily life, Taiwan’s life line will be firmly in the hands of China to the foreseeable future?

Why not unify with China?

Is it because you do not trust Chinese government and its ability to strike Taiwan at any moment?

Since Ma took office, officials from Taiwanese government at many levels have called for China to remove roughly 1,200 missiles that are aimed at Taiwan. This is utterly non-sense because it sounds like what Chinese said “自欺欺人zi4 qi1 qi1 ren2.” Why should China do that? What does China get in return? Will Taiwan come to the negotiation table to discuss conditions of a unified China if these missiles are removed back to Central or Western China? These missiles can be reset at moments notice if China likes it.

Is it because the current leader is satisfied with being the head of a nation, second class or not, instead of a governor of a small state in China?

Is it because that no Taiwanese president, certainly not Ma Ying Jiu, from KMT wants to be the last president of the ROC Dynasty that may 遗臭万年 “yi2 chou4 wan4 nian2”?

Is it because Taiwan has found a new mother to play child with? Didn’t the United States wants to sell Taiwan advanced weapons to counter China’s insurgence? Even the president called for such a sell in order to “balance” with China’s military power? Is he kidding? Without the backing of the United States, Taiwan would have long been part of China already. Taiwan is willing to be a pawn and a front line foot solider of the United States in the cold war between the US and China in the decades to come?

Is it because that being a front line foot solider of the United States gives Taiwan a false sense of importance on the world stage?

This is what I have to say to those 50+% of Taiwanese people:

Forget about the status quote. Independence is not achievable given China’s “One China” stance. Use ECFA as a blue print, seek the best comprises from China politically across the negotiation table and move towards a peaceful one China goal in the next decade. It will be good for China and it will be for Taiwan.

Believe me:

The United States is not a friend of Taiwan. It sees China as its new enemy and has aggressively seeking partners such as Japan, Vietnam and India, to fight against the insurgence of China.

Taiwan and China should join hands to counter the attack from the US instead of fighting each other.

Imam Rauf claims that he is a man of peace and he is a moderate Muslim. I do not think so because he transforms himself into a radical Muslim when I”slam is under attack.” He said that America has to pay the price if he doesn’t get his way to build a mosque at the place he wanted.

In the same breath, he also claims that he has never and will never threaten American people because his executioners are ready to do the dirty job for him.

No one gives it a damn if someone burns an American flag or a bible. That’s freedom of speech, according to the high court.

If someone try to burn a Koran or a bunch of Korans, according to Obama, Hillary, Petraeus and a bunch of others, it becomes a national security issue.

Now Imam Rauf has said that unless the mosque is built at the site in the Lower Manhattan, “The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack.” And, if you read between the lines, American heads here in the US and abroad will roll.

Hmm.., Is that a threat to the American people?

Let’s raise the national security threat level to orange then, Obama.

What does this have to say about the religion of Islam? And more importantly what does this have to say about the mood of American people who have had it up to their eyes with the threats from the so-called religion of the peace.

What I do not understand is:

How come the leaders of Arab countries didn’t come out and ask Muslims in the world to tone it down?

How come the so-called moderate Imams all over the world in the world didn’t ask their followers to respect majority of American people’s will?

How come the so-called moderate Imams all over the world or Muslim leaders didn’t ask Imam Rauf to move the Cordoba House to a different location?

How come Obama didn’t call the leaders of the Muslim countries and tell them that Freedom of Speech is the Law of the land here and is protected by the constitution of the United States?

How come Hillary Clinton and Ambassadors to the Muslim countries didn’t call these Muslim nations and educate these Muslim leaders of the American way of life and ask them to come out and ask the radicals, as Imam Rauf has put it, to put their saif, or suicide bombs, down for a change?

Now you see how big a mess Obama did with his”right ot build” iftar speech in front of many Muslims in the White House. He really kicked it up a notch, didn’t he?

I say Obama is a Muslim in front of other Muslims. At least he acted as a Muslim and seek approval from his fellow Muslim brothers at the White House iftar dinner.
The next day when asked of his comment he tried to have it both ways and said that he didn’t question the “wisdom” of building a mosque so close to ground zero. May I ask you Obama, whose wisdom did you refer to? Surely you didn’t question the wisdom of Muslims, did you?

A modern era version of the full fledged of religion war is developing in the lower Manhattan of the New York City.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has just came back from our-Tax-Money-funded, State Department-sponsored 2-month trip from Middle East nations during which he has, according to the State Department, fostered “greater understanding” about Islam and Muslim communities in the US. He has stopped by Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar. From Imam Rauf’s Op Ed piece on New York Times, Muslims in the world have come to an agreement that the Cordoba House has to continue because there is no way that Muslims will submit to Christians or Jews.

Imam Rauf said that:

“The wonderful outpouring of support for our right to build this community center from across the social, religious and political spectrum seriously undermines the ability of anti-American radicals to recruit young, impressionable Muslims by falsely claiming that America persecutes Muslims for their faith.”

He continued that:

“These efforts by radicals at distortion endanger our national security and the personal security of Americans worldwide.”

and

“This is why Americans must not back away from completion of this project. If we do, we cede the discourse and, essentially, our future to radicals on both sides.”

In other words, if the Cordoba House is not permitted to continue, American heads will roll.

He also took the opportunity to give Americans a lesson on the word “islam.”

He didn’t address Obama’s comment on the “wisdom of the the ground zero mosque” though.

He did say that he’ll tell everybody where he got his $100 million from.

Hmm, I wonder how much of that $100 million came from our gas money we gladly paid at pumps every time we stop to gas up.

In case you don’t know:

Our tax money has been used to restore mosques and other culture sites all over the world for the past ten years.

Here are some States Department projects in the Middle East and North Africa funded by our tax money.

Middle East & North Africa

34. Algeria: Conservation of Murals at the Early 19th‐Century Palace of Hadj Ahmed Bey in Constantine, $30,000

35. Egypt: Restoration of the Late 19th‐Century Villa Castagli $63,210

36. Jerusalem: Conservation and Protection of Trench One at Tell Es‐Sultan in Jericho $80,550

37. Jordan: Restoration of the Nabataean Flash Flood Protection System at Petra $83,700

38. Lebanon: Conservation of the 8th‐Century Public Baths in the Umayyad City of Anjar $55,000

39. Libya: Documentation and Training in the Management of Archaeological Collections at the Ancient Greek Site of Cyrene
$74,500

40. Morocco: Restoration of 17th‐ and 18th‐Century Monuments in the Kasbah of Mehdiya $100,000

There are two projects in China:

13. China: Restoration of the Guangong Temple Grotto Entrance Gate and Other Structures at the 7th‐Century Grottoes of the Giant Buddha Temple $43,988

14. China: Restoration of the Late 16th‐Century Grand Mosque in Tongxin $76,135

All together, there are a total of 63 projects in 56 countries in 2010 with a total award of $5,959,811.

For 2009 and 2008, our government spent $5,452,609 and $4,731,431 of our tax money, respectively on various other projects.

Now a days, many people in the United States are scrapping from the bottom of their piggy banks to get by. But obviously some people in these foreign countries are making a good living off our tax money. Please do not tell this to the guys who are receiving his or her 99th unemployment checks. They may not like what they hear.

Now you know why the United States is broke.

btw, have we got anything in return over the last ten years? A “Thank You” card or perhaps a new proposal for more money from us to fix another mosque in a village near by?

What I do not understand is how come Muslims all over the world still hate the United States?

On one hand, the State Department is spends our tax money fixing mosques all over the world. On the other hand, the Defense Department sends American soldiers to some countries to kill their citizens we deemed dangerous which is then followed by State Department putting in a new government that the US thinks is friendly to the US.